PAF Helps Launch a New University Initiative to Advance GW’s Strategic Plan


February 24, 2016

XDGW Launch

On December 10th, my placement launched its flagship program, the Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Cooperative. The Cooperative is designed to identify, celebrate, and promote the inter-, multi-, and tran-disciplinary work of faculty and staff at GW. With the help of two current PAFs, Ashlynn Profit and Max Tingle, we hosted a celebratory luncheon for over 100 faculty and staff. Being able to see a semester of work come to fruition and experience with it fellow PAFs made it an unforgettable experience. It was a huge success, and since December, an additional 150 fellows have joined the Cooperative.

My placement, GW Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Initiative (XD@GW) was established to advance one of the four pillars of the university’s strategic plan, “innovation through cross-disciplinary collaboration.” We are working to index and articulate GW’s impressive portfolio of cross-disciplinary teaching and research, while also crafting policy recommendations to make such work easier to pursue. The opportunity to play a central role in a new university initiative is teaching me to manage ambiguity, think creatively when solving problems, and clarify expectations. I have the chance to help lead the creation of our mass communication process and establish the initiative’s overall goals and strategy – both experiences I expect will prove useful after graduation.